NALS
by Otakusoldier
Summary: It is the end of Nights second year at Beacon academy and he faces his most trialing challenge yet. He must tell his story to none other than professor Ozpin revealing the problems he's faced in his time at the school.
1. Chapter 1

Professor Ozpin sat there watching him, His eyes piercing him every second. Night didn't like being in these interviews with Ozpin. The dark room. The bare table in the centre. The combined effect always made Night feel extremely exposed, and somewhat helpless.

It wasn't a feeling he was used to having, but over the past couple of months it was a feeling he was becoming more, and more familiar with.

"So mister Shade. Thank you for coming." Ozpin said picking up a file from the table.

"You're very welcome professor."

"As you know it is a policy that after the first two years of training at beacon academy, we perform an interview of this nature, so that we can judge your psychological progress."

Night sat back in his chair and sighed. "Yes sir." He wasn't going to enjoy this. He'd heard about these interviews before, and they had a reputation for becoming pretty weird.

Ozpin examined him closely. "So... why don't you start from your entrance into the academy?"

"Of course. Well..."

Night stepped off of the large silver carrier ship, his suitcase held firmly in one hand, a black curved katana in the other. He was hot, and, not for the first time today, he cursed himself for wearing such a dark suit in the middle of summer.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead causing it to soak into his bark blue hair. Amber walked past him into the centre of the platform on which they and several other teenagers now stood. He couldn't help but applaud her for her choice in clothing.

She wore a white summer dress with several different coloured sigils embroidered into it. This was one of the few things she ever wore, and she never went out without wearing something with embroidered onto it. Her clothes were her weapon and she was never defenceless, and as well as the protection they gave her they complimented her pale skin and blonde hair perfectly.

As she stood there with her suitcases, she looked up at the spires and towers of Beacon academy. And as Night strolled past her she ran after him shouting for him to wait.

Night and Amber had been friends since their early days at Signal academy and if it weren't for each other they may well have never made it to Beacon.

She was his polar opposite. While he was tall with dark hair and a cold, dark and stoic personality, she was bright blonde, short and almost never in a bad mood, capable of cheering up anyone she was near.

And as different as they were, they were inseparable.

As they walked through the front square of Beacon they took in their surroundings, Amber yammering away and Night listening to her as she talked excitedly about the training they were about to begin.

They walked into the academy's atrium and were greeted by the sight of around 50 people, all in their late teens. All of them looked different and seemed to be from different ethnic backgrounds. They held weapons, luggage and all manner of other items, and they were all looking up at the man standing on the stage in the centre of the room.

The man was unmistakably, Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon academy and world renound huntsman. He was standing there in his trademark black suit and green scarf.

After noticing all his new students had entered he began to speak "you have travelled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people."

"But when I look at those among you all I see is wasted energy, In need of purpose and direction." At this a small murmur began to spread through the crowd. Ozpin seemed unfazed by this and continued. " You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will show you that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

At this he stepped away from the microphone and a rather stern looking blonde woman in her late thirties stepped forward to take his place. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." She then followed Ozpin off the stage and up the steps into the main building.

It was at this point that Night noticed two figures in the crowd. A white haired boy in a white suit and trench coat, and a tall thin redhead in a black skirted suit with clearly visible cat ears and a tail protruding from a hole in the back of her skirt. At that same moment they noticed him and Amber. The redhead smiled at Night, and got a slight tilt of the head in return. The two pairs approached each other.

The white haired boy chuckled as he reached them "So, since when is Beacon academy accepting second class students into its halls?" he asked Night, his small smile becoming a wide smirk.

"Hello Light." Night replied his tone as cold as ice. Lights smirk turned to a handsome smile as he turned to Amber.

"Hey gorgeous." He said winking. "Been way to long since I saw you."

Amber frowned and flicked her wrist. Light had obviously forgotten about Amber's ability to control dust, and as he remembered, too late about this strange ability the revolver under his left arm flew from its holster, flipped in the air and cracked against the side of his jaw, dropping to the ground once it had done so.

Light yelped holding the side of his face and Night smiled to himself.

The redheaded girl rushed forward and hugged Night pressing him into her generous cleavage.

"Night, it's so good to see you!"

"Uh, yeah. It's good to see you too Silvia." He said, feeling very squashed.

She let him go and gave him a long kiss on the cheek. Amber scowled and brushed one of the sigils on her dress summoning a small ball of fire into her palm. Night saw this and grabbed her hand closing it and extinguishing the flame before she had the chance to throw it at Silvia.

"Oh feisty!" Silvia exclaimed. "Remind me not to piss her off." She purred in his ear, smiling seductively when she pulled away. By this point Light had recovered and was standing with a look of hatred etched onto his handsome boyish face.

"Come on Light." She said running her finger across Nights cheek, and then walking away. "Let's go find some trouble." Light stared at Amber for another second and then turned and followed.

Night turned to Amber apologetically. "I'm really sorry."

"Ok" She said turning away.

"Amber."

"It's fine." She snapped, and then she walked away, leaving Night staring after her.


	2. Chapter 2: moving out

**Chapter 2:**

Ozpin looked at him calmly."You didn't know did you?" Night chuckled to himself in his chair.

"That Amber was in love with me? No. Not at all." He leaned forwards placing his chin on the table, staring across at Ozpin's mug of coffee. "As obvious at is should have been I was completely clueless"

"Well," said Ozpin opening up the file again "from that i think i can make a good judgment on you psychologically at that point. Shall we move onto the subject of your teams' first mission?"

Night sat back again. "Ok, well... as you know, I and Amber were, for some reason, placed alongside Light and Silvia, to become team, and after the first semester we had to take part in our first mission, shadowing a real huntress. Unfortunately by this point Silvia was starting to get to Amber in quite a bad way..."

It was 6 in the morning and the four of them were waiting on the air platform. Night looked at the other three. As an insomniac he was used to only getting small amounts of sleep. The other's however looked exhausted. Light took this to the point that he had even laid down on the ground using his rolled up jacket as a makeshift pillow.

Although the air ship had already arrived almost an hour before, they still had to wait for the Huntress they were to be shadowing. The students hadn't been told anything about their huntsmen, and for the past few days the first years had been in lively debate about who they would be assigned to, and what they would be like.

Night wasn't so exited. Since a young age he'd had a natural problem with being told what to do, and he had no illusions that the next few days would involve endless amounts of orders from some pretentious ass who wouldn't show him or the rest of his team any respect.

Just as this thought crossed his mind it was interrupted by a voice from behind him "So, you the students that'll be shadowing me?"

They all turned to see who had spoken, Light lifting himself up onto his elbows to get a better look.

Standing before them was a thin girl who looked to be around twenty years old. Her blonde hair was tied in a long braid that hung down her back. She wore a green blouse, and boots, with dark shorts and black thigh length socks.

From her back hung a simple compound bow, and on her right hand she wore a tight fitting leather glove with a small metal symbol attached to the back.

Her bright green eyes were fixed on the four first years with a look of casual interest.

Night stepped forward "that's us. Nice to meet you." He said extending his arm.

"You too." She replied, taking his hand in a firm shake. "I'm Yorna."

"Yorna." Light said springing to his feet, and flashing her a smile. "What a beautiful name."

She looked at him deadpan. "Stop that." At this Silvia smacked light in the back of the head. "thank you." Said Yorna, Smiling at Silvia. "And what would your name be?"

"Silvia." Silvia replied smiling back.

"Alright, and the creep." She said, he face dropping back to the cold stare.

"That would be Light." Night chuckled. She looked at him for another second, then turned back to the others, her smile returning. It felt almost impossible not to smile back. Night, to his annoyance, even found himself smiling at this strange, confidently happy girl.

"And that must mean that you're Amber?" She asked taking a couple of steps towards her.

"Yes I am." Amber beamed back. "I'm so happy we got someone nice to shadow."

"Awww." Yorna stepped in and hugged her tightly. "So nice of you to say." She let her free and then positioned herself to address the group as a whole. "Ok, so, as you guys know, today we'll be travelling to a small dust mining outpost outside vale. Over the past few weeks the outpost has been dealing with more trouble from the Grimm populace than they are used to and as a result their defences have been stretched to the breaking point. Our mission is to provide additional security to the civilian population there, and find and destroy as many Grimm as we can. Any questions?

"Yeah" Said Night, resting his katana across the shoulders of his black hoodie. "Aren't missions of this nature normally denied to first year students because of the inherent risks?"

"Normally yes, but this is a special case. Not only are you being thrown into the deep end, but so am I. I am still a student myself, but the headmaster was impressed by your performance in the initiation ceremony, and so he decided to test our skills."

"Wait a second." Light said, looking at her confused. "I thought we were supposed to be shadowing qualified huntsmen."

"The other first years are." She replied impatiently. "I however am in my third year at Beacon. I was assigned to this mission as a test of my leadership potential."

"Ok. That all sounds fine to me." Night said beginning to stroll of towards the air ship.

"Um doesn't this seem kinda dangerous to you guys?" Light asked as the others began to follow.

"Shut up Light." Replied Silvia. "You only say that because she didn't get taken in by your flirty crap." Light growled and followed.


	3. Chapter 3: the girl

**Chapter 3:**

Once they were all aboard it took them just under six hours to reach the outpost. As they circled above the landing platform they looked down at the facility. It was quite small and apart from a couple of watch towers containing machine gunners on the outer perimeters, the outpost had very little in the way of defensive measures.

As they landed Night hoped down from the air ship.

"I'm surprised it took them this long to call for help." He said taking in the workers heading towards the mine shaft.

"I can't believe there was anyone left to call for help." Silvia muttered stepping down behind him.

She had changed on the ride there, in plain view of the rest of the team, and was now wearing a suit of tight fitting brown leather that griped into her curves and somehow even further complimented her body. As usual her tail was protruding from a small hole in its lower back, and in her hands she carried a pair of large assault rifles.

"believe it or not," Said Yorna, stepping from the ship and walking ahead of the group. "this is actually a common sight in the dust industry. People like the Schnee family run countless small mines like this one, pay minimal wages to their workers and allow them to work in such dangerous environments that only people with no other choices ever willingly work in them."

"That's horrible!" Cried Amber rushing after her. "how do they get away with it?"

"It doesn't help things that most of their workers are Faunus." Silvia said mournfully, watching as a fox eared miner walk past her.

"Exactly. No rich person ever got what they have by giving more than they got. They keep every cent of the profits for themselves without considering their workforce." Yorna replied turning to face them. "The real problem is that when these places are inevitably attacked by Grimm, or White Fang extremists, they're so scared of losing their precious products that they immediately call us to clean up their mess."

"And that takes away from the time we could be spending dealing with less idiotic issues." Night said sternly, examining the woodlands that surrounded the outpost. There was a short pause as Yorna watched him apprehensively. She'd read his file and couldn't help but remember why Ozpin had decided to place him as team leader.

"You sense something don't you?" she asked. She'd been told to trust his sixth sense. And she could tell something was wrong.

"We're being watched. There's something over in those trees over there." he indicated with his finger. "I think we should dig in here. Set up defences and wait for nightfall. These people are going to need our protection tonight."

Yorna nodded and turned to the rest of the team. "Alright, we don't have that long to prepare so we'll need to work quickly. Amber, I want you to get the some dust crystals from the mine and set us explosive traps around the area. Be careful I don't want you getting blown sky high. Silvia I want you to get up to those machine gun nests. See what improvements you can make to their weapons. Then stay up there and do what you can to amuse yourself while you wait for further orders. Light, start unloading the equipment from the air ship. You only have half an hour before it leaves so make it quick. Night, I'm going to need your help setting the automated turrets up in key positions. If we work together we can have this done before dusk. Right, Get to work"

The group separated setting about their individual tasks. After light unloaded the ship it departed, and he went to the second of the two machine gun nests to upgrade its equipment. Amber did as she was instructed, setting up over a dozen dust mines around the area.

While they had been working, Night had worked out the forces they were dealing with. They were being watched by more than one creature. From the breathing that he could hear there were at least 5 and they were most definitely Grimm. For all he knew there may be an army of them out there.

By dusk they were as prepared as they could be. Light had even brought out a bolt action rifle from a case, and was now positioned up on a machine gun nest, with the sights trained on the surrounding trees.

Silvia stood on the other, her assault rifles ready to fire, and in the centre of the clearing stood Yorna and Night, their weapons ready, with Amber positioned in a nearby building ready to give assistance.

All that remained now was to wait.

Every few seconds Night couldn't help but glance at Yorna. "You want to ask don't you?" she said still watching the forests.

"Ask what?" He said turning back to the trees.

"The rule that Beacon students never go on missions outside of their team is one that has always existed." Night couldn't help looking at his feet. "This mission had broken a lot of rules, but the rule of teams is an immutable one."

"So your point is?" he asked keeping his voice level.

"You want to ask me what happened that means I longer have a team to fight alongside." She wasn't asking him. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

There was no point in him denying it. It was all he'd been able to think about all day. "Something must have gone wrong."

A sad smile crossed her face "My team was one of the most promising that Beacon academy had ever seen. It was our leader who truly made us what we were. She was one of the greatest huntresses I ever met. Strongest I'd ever seen before, Or seen since. She once challenged one of Signal academy's Professors in a one to one challenge. He was a Scythe wielder, and even then at only 14, the fight lasted over an hour. They fought each other to a standstill." She chuckled at this. "Never one to give up was professor crow." Her face fell. "He'd be ashamed if he was to see what became of her. It was our first mission. A search and destroy class mission. We were ordered to clear a forest like these of all Grimm that called it home. After two days fighting we found an Ursa. She fought harder than any of the other Grimm we'd found. Only after we eventually killed her did we find out why. Nearby we found a cub. She'd been fighting to defend it. Our fearless leader had always been a fair person. She never gave anyone or thing any more or less than they deserved. She refused to let us harm this creature. It was newborn and hadn't done anything to harm anyone. What should it be punished. When we tried to reason with her she wouldn't hear a word of it, and when one of us tried to force her out of the way, she fought back. He was injured severely and she fled with the creature into the night. None of us have seen her since. For all the promise she showed, for all the skill she possessed, she was too fair. We lost her to herself that day. I still remember her face. That pretty face. Her pale skin. But more than anything I remember those eyes. One brown, one purple. Like something from a fairy tale." A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Night realised that she wasn't the only one that had shed a tear at the story. He shook his head, wiping away the dampness from his face.

"Where is she now?" He said covering up his tears.

"I don't know. She turns up ever few months. We hear reports of a girl accompanied by an Ursa cub being spotted in the forests defending groups of Grimm. There have even been incidents where she's killed students from the academy."

"How do we not know about this?"

"Naturally they don't want something like this coming to light, and so they cover it up." She spat with disgust. "It's pathetic!"

The words were cut off by a howl, and from the forests the Grimm began to pour. The attack had begun.


	4. Chapter 4: it begins

**Chapter 4:**

Light reacted first, sending an explosive round straight through the chest of an Ursa, sending another through the head of a beawolf less than a second later.

Silvia and the machine gunners began firing sending volleys of rounds into the oncoming hoard. Yorna loosed an arrow at the beawolf leading the charge. It penetrated strait through it and carried on through the air. Night didn't see how her bow could be useful. After all it only had one arrow and if it could only hit one target then it wouldn't be of any use.

Suddenly she waved her gloved hand through the air and pulled it back. Another beawolf jerked forwards and dropped. She continued to wave her hand in seemingly random directions but each movement she made caused another monster to fall.

After a minute or so things calmed down. Light and Silvia jumped down from the towers and approached Night. "That was easier than I Expected." Light said happily.

Yorna put her hand in the air. There was a whistle and her arrow flied into it. "What, you think that was it?" she said, placing the notch back into the string. "That was just the first wave. Be ready for the next one."

Suddenly she stopped and looked at Night. "I didn't see you kill a single one of those things."

"Fine, leave some of the next wave for me." He replied staring at her, a small smile at the corners of his mouth. It was disturbing. She knew the other team members information backwards. What their weapons did. Their personalities. What they ate for breakfast.

But for him she knew nearly nothing. His file didn't have any information on his background, his combat experience, or his semblance, and other than the fact he used a katana she had no idea how he fought.

More Grimm began to come from the forests. It wasn't a large group, probably no more than 15 creatures of varying types, and Yorna didn't see any harm in letting Night take care of them. She walked over to the nearest gun nest and leaned against it folding her arms.

"Impress me."

Night walked forward briskly in an almost business like fashion. The Grimm stopped and viewed him with unease. They began to circle, and one of the Ursa stepped forward swinging its gigantic paw at him.

Yorna found it very hard to follow what happened next.

Night's right hand sprang to the hilt of his sword. Suddenly there was a flash of blue light, and he disappeared. The Ursa followed through with its swing, falling as it did, and as its body hit the ground it shattered into several pieces each no larger than an average football.

Yorna's jaw fell. What had happened? Where had Night gone? It was then she realised that none of the other Grimm were moving. She looked closer seeing that each of their bodies was now covered in crisscrossing lines of light blue.

"Impressed yet?" said a voice behind them. They turned to see Night holding his katana, its blade burning with sky blue flames.

"I don't know." Yorna replied as he walked over to stand next to her, his eyes fixed on the creatures that still stood motionless in the clearing. "I don't know what you did."

He twisted the, blade sliding it slowly back into its scabbard, and as the blade clicked into place the Grimm collapsed, the blue lines separating, turning each of them into a large pile of detached body parts.

"How about now?" he said smiling at her. The three of them could do nothing but stare at him open mouthed. None of them had ever seen him fight before. He'd never been in a challenge in their combat classes and had never drawn his sword in front of them. In the building Amber couldn't help but start giggling. The looks on their faces were just too funny.

After about twenty seconds of staring Night broke the silence. "Yeah, you know you're going to have to close your mouths eventually." They closed their mouths immediately.

Light was the first to recover. "How the hell did you do that?"

"My semblance is basically short distance, light speed movement. It allows me, in effect, to teleport from one place to another." The others looked at him in disbelief. Frowning he continued." Unfortunately I can only move around a hundred meters at a time with it. Combine it with a razor sharp sword that simultaneously cauterizes and freezes wounds in place and you get the attack you just witnessed."

"That's amazing." Said Silvia, rushing forward to hug him. He hugged her back and suddenly there was a rush of wind and Silvia jerked in his arms. He stared at her.

Her pretty face had gone deathly pale. She gave a sudden cough and fell back, and Night realised that his face and hoodie had been splattered with blood.

As he noticed this he saw the six foot long black feathers that now surrounded them. The feathers that matched the one now embedded between Silvia's shoulder blades.


	5. Chapter 5: Breaking point

**Chapter 5:**

"Ah yes, The Nevermore." Ozpin said looking at his file. "We've had some substantial problems with them in the past."

"Yes. That feather penetrated straight through Silvia's chest cavity..."

"SILVIA!" screamed Light, drawing his revolvers. He and Yorna turned and fired their weapons at the nevermore that floated 50 yards above them. It began swirling through the air, dodging the bursts of dust fire and the arrow locked onto it.

Amber ran out from the building and crouched down beside Silvia's motionless body. She checked her wrist. "She's alive but her pulse is faint." She pulled a small blade and a crimson tipped needle from her jacket.

"What are you doing?" Night said scanning the area for some way of getting up to the colossal raven, above them.

"It missed her spine, but her right lung has collapsed and one of her major veins has been punctured. I have to reroute the blood flow, and seal the wound so her lung can normalise." She began cutting the tissues around the wound and then looked up at him. "Night I need you to take out the feather. And be quick about it because once it's out I need to work fast."

Night placed his hands around the feather and gave it a sharp pull. It came out accompanied by a small spurt of red. Amber got to work and Night could see the wound glowing as the vein and surrounding tissues were replaced by a red and blue material.

Yorna felt sick. She held out her hand and her arrow returned to it. how had her first mission in command gone so wrong? She looked over at Night.

He was standing over Silvia looking down at his blood soaked hands, his katana lying next to him. He had tears on his cheeks and his purple eyes were cold and lifeless. "Night?" Yorna said quietly stepping towards him. He looked up and she immediately stepped back again.

He stooped down and picked up the blade that lay at his feet then straitened up and stared at the monster up above them.

It flapped its wings sending another volley of razor sharp feathers whistling towards the five of them. Another blue flash illuminated the Dusk and the feathers erupted into a flurry of tiny shavings. It fell around them like black snow coating the ground in a thin layer.

Night now stood in front of them, his face obscured from view. His whole body seemed to have gotten darker, His skin covered by a deeper shadow than the rest of the clearing. Even his sword seemed to have turned a few shades darker.

The Nevermore screeched and as it did so light disappeared. The screech died in the monsters throat, and as it began to fall light landed on the edge of the clearing. He placed his sword back into its scabbard, and mid fall, the Nevermore's head separated from its body.

Night turned and they could do nothing but stare as he walked back, his face blank, his eyes burning with cold fire. Yorna was terrified. In seconds this nice, good natured guy had become an emotionless, merciless emissary of pure destruction.

"Call for extraction." He said to Yorna as he reached them. He bent down next to Silvia and checked her pupils using the blade of his katana for illumination.

"Night, are you o..."

"CALL FOR EXTRACTION NOW!" He yelled looking up at her. She flinched at his outburst, and backed away. "How is she?" He said looking to Amber. She sighed.

"She's not good. Her vital signs are tanking, and she's lost a lot of blood. I'm doing my best but if we don't get her back to the academy soon, she's got no chance."

Night sat next to her and looked at what she'd done so far. It wasn't pretty but for now it seemed to be working. He looked up again.

"What are you still doing standing there? Go call for extraction." Yorna sprang into action. She sprinted over to the building Amber had been taking cover in, and disappeared. Five minutes later she came back.

"There's a drop ship in the area, around half an hour away. We'll leave the mine and get another team to come and extract the workforce."

"Ok. Good." He said not talking his eyes of Silvia's face. "Light get back into a defensive position. Yorna. go inform the work force that they'll be leaving. We don't want any more accidents." The two of them walked away, and he looked over to Amber. "Is she ready to be moved?"

She grimaced. "It's risky but we don't have any choice."

He took Silvia's hand. "Hang in there you crazy bitch."

Half an hour later they were on a drop ship bound for beacon academy. Amber spent the entire journey tending to Silvia, Monitoring her vitals, and giving her a transfusion.

Light and Yorna sat against either side of the open door, staring out into the night, as Night sat by Silvia's side. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. And the only sound was the roar of the engines.

When they reached the academy Night picked up Silvia and carried her to the medical rooms. As they reached them he placed her down onto a gurney and personally pushed it to the O.R., and After a very tense screaming match with a secretary to wake up the surgeons and get them there Silvia's surgery began.

Night walked back to the waiting room and sat down in a chair away from the others. He buried his face in his hands and took a deep breath. He'd done all he could.

All he could do now was sit back, try to relax, and wait to see how this would turn out.


	6. Chapter 6: guilty conscience

**Chapter 6:**

The next few hours were the tensest of Nights life. They had no word of how things were going, and they had no view of the O.R. night sat there motionless. He never left to drink or eat, and he never slept.

After an hour or so Yorna left to go tell Ozpin what had happened.

Amber walked over. "Night, you need to try and get some sleep." He didn't reply. She sat down next to him. "You're going to drive yourself mad if you keep fretting." He sat silently, staring at the door. "Night, please speak to me."

"It's my fault Amber." He said turning to her.

"What?"

"If Silvia hadn't hugged me, she would have been fine and that feather would have hit me." He buried his face in his hands.

"Night you can't think like that." She replied trying to wrap an arm around him. He recoiled away slightly, and she tried again. Reluctantly he let her hug him and she rested her head on his shoulder. "It's not your fault." She whispered.

He turned and returned her hug. There wasn't anything else he could say. There wasn't anything Amber could say. He knew that he was to blame.

It was eight hours before a surgeon joined them in the waiting room. They all stood up and waited for him to speak. The tension in the room was palpable. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

He looked at them softly. "She's going to make it." They each let out a sigh of relief. "The surgery was successful, but unfortunately the damage to her body was extremely severe, so we've been forced to place her into a medically induced coma." In stunned silence, Night collapsed back into his chair.

"A coma?" Light said, his face pale. "But how long will she be in it?"

The surgeon, to his credit seemed unfazed by this question. "If all goes well we should be ready to bring her out of it in about a week." Light grimaced and sat back down, trying to compose himself. The surgeon stepped over to Amber. "You're the girl who tended to her wounds aren't you?" he asked.

"Um yes I am."

"You did a good job. If you hadn't acted as quickly as you did, your friend undoubtedly wouldn't have survived."

She beamed. "Thank you sir." She looked over at Night, who still sat in his chair. His eyes were filled with tears. Amber rushed over and through her arms around him. "It's ok, see. She's going to be alright." He let out a teary laugh and buried his face in her shoulder. They stayed there for a few minutes, locked in a tight hug.

Through all of this the surgeon had stood there, a look of passive reassurance on his face, but as Amber and Night let go of each other he began to speak again. "We'll be moving her to a room shortly, and shall be keeping a close watch on her for the next few days. In the mean time I would thoroughly recommend that you all return to your dorms and get some sleep. Try to find some way of occupying yourself till we wake her up."

"No." Said Night standing up quickly. "I'm going to stay with her for a while."

"Well, I suppose there's nothing I'll be able to do to dissuade you, so if you would be so kind as to follow me we can get her up to a private room." Night nodded and the two of them walked back through the doors to the O.R., leaving amber to cheer up Light.

The next week went by very quickly. Amber and Light spent all their time throwing and attending parties in beacon academies halls. When the parties ran dry and everyone was too hung over to do anything, they instead headed and spent all their time drinking and messing around in the endless bars and nightclubs in vales many streets.

Night however spent all his time on Silvia's hospital room. He sat looking out the window over Beacon academies spires, he read the books that he could get hold of, and he ordered food from the kitchens whenever he could bring himself to eat. Sometimes he would even just talk to Silvia's unconscious form, hoping she could hear what he was saying.

His face was the last Silvia had seen before slipping into unconsciousness, and he felt it only right that it be the first she saw when she woke up. He needed to be the one to tell her what had happened, and more than anything he needed to say sorry to her for letting it happen.

After nine days Amber and Light finally showed up again. There was a knock at the door and Amber peeked her head in. "Hi. " She said quietly, walking in with Light at her heels. She pulled up a chair and sat next to night at Silvia's bedside. "How's she doing?" she asked touching his arm.

"She's doing ok." He said, bringing his had up to meet hers. "There were some small complications early on so she had to spend a couple of extra days asleep. But the doctor was in a little while ago and he disconnected the sleeping agent. He said she'd stay under for a little while but she should wake up within a few hours."

She smiled. "That's great."

"Yeah" he said giving her a small smile back. She could tell he was still wrong, but she didn't press the matter.

They waited in silence, Night and Amber sitting at the bed, Light sitting on the window frame, looking out the open window at the people that passed bellow.

Finally, without warning, Silvia's arm twitched and she groaned, half opening her eyes to the summer sun pouring through the window panes. She closed and reopened them, her eyes adjusting to the room, starting to take in the ceiling tiles, the hospital machines around her, and the three smiling teammates that now surrounded her bed.

"Hey guys. I had the craziest dream."


	7. Chapter 7: the complication

**Chapter 7:**

Ozpin observed him over his coffee.

"It was surprising how quickly Silvia recovered. She'd suffered a wound that should by all means have stunted her for life, and not only did she make a full recovery, but she managed it in a third of the time seen in similar patients." He said placing his mug down.

"Yes she did. We were just as surprised as the doctors." Night replied leaning on the table.

"And what's more, usually after an incident like this one a teams' performance statistics in training will drop. Team NALS however not only increased but grew to the second best overall team stats out of all the second year students. The only team that beat you was team CFVY."

"Ah, yes. Something that Coco was only too happy to rub in at every opportunity. But you're right. Due to the secrecy about my skills, along with the fact that Silvia spent all her time annoying Amber, we didn't work very well as a team. But in the days after she woke up, Silvia was told what had happened and what amber had done for her, and from that point onwards she didn't try to bother her anymore. She kept the flirting to a minimum, and even became what could have been called nice, and now that they all knew what I could do. We were able to start fighting properly together. We could co-ordinate."

"It definitely shows. Your teams' combat efficiency went up by nearly 200 percent in the weeks that followed the incident."

"Indeed. As I said, best we'd ever been."

"Did you however talk to Silvia about your mission?" Ozpin remarked, taking another sip of coffee.

"Well... to be honest it was a while before we talked."

Night sat in the large, warm classroom. He'd only just sat down and was now engaged in conversation with Coco.

"Look just because your team did a search and destroy mission first time out doesn't mean it makes you better, ok." He said, flicking a broken pencil lead at her.

"You're right. The fact that none of us even got scratched makes us better than you." She said throwing a rolled up piece of paper back at him. He sighed looking down at his empty note pad.

"Ok, maybe that's true, but you have to admit that out of the two of us, my skills have far more destructive potential."

She pulled out her phone and showed him the screen. He saw the statistics table for the second year students. "If you're better then why is my kill count higher than yours?"

"You were on a search and destroy. You were literally there to kill as many Grimm as possible. We were on static defence. It's not a fair test."

"My weapon can destroy a building in seconds. I know. I tested it." She said lifting her suitcase up onto the desk. The desk creaked as she placed it down.

He placed his katana next to it. "Yeah but with my weapon I could turn your weapon to pretty much dust in less than a second without you being able to do anything about it." Over the past four months of education at Beacon, he and Coco Had become very close friends.

Night glanced forward at the front row where Silvia was sitting in a flowery summer dress. The action wasn't missed and Coco leaned in and whispered. "You still haven't gotten the guts to talk to her about it yet?"

After over a month's endless deliberation he had realised that if it weren't for her he'd have died that day. If she hadn't hugged him that feather would have driven straight into his chest. There would have been no surgery or first aid that could have saved him.

He turned to her scowling. "Do you always have to pick up on every little thing I do?"

She gave him an arrogant smile. "It's what I do. Think this is bad? You should see how much I do it to my team."

"Ok is there any point to this conversation?" He said looking back to Oobleck, zipping from place to place at the front of the class.

"Yep, you are going to talk to her today, after this class."

"No no no." He said shaking his head.

She grabbed him in a choke hold, and dragged him off his seat and to the ground. She whispered into his ear. "Yes you are. You are growing a pair and doing it. I've talked to Light, and he told me what happened to you after Silvia got wounded. If you can singlehandedly take down a Nevermore without showing a shred of fear, then you can have a conversation with a girl who you owe your life to."

"Can... you... get off... please?" He choked, clawing at her constricting arm.

"Not until you promise to talk to her." she replied tightening her arm further.

"Ok... I promise." She let go of him and sat against the back wall of the room. He gasped in air and she started chuckling. He grabbed the notepad off his desk and threw it at her.

As the lesson ended Night began to head out the door. "Oh no you don't." Said Coco grabbing him by the collar, and throwing him back down the stairs of the classroom. He looked back as she walked out the room, throwing a cocky smile back at him.

As the other students poured out of the classroom Night walked over to Silvia's desk. "Hey Silvia can I have a word quickly?"

She looked up at him smiling. "Of course handsome. What's up?"

He sat down on the desk next to her. "Um... well on the mission... thank you." She looked up at him confused.

"For what?"

He sighed grimacing. "If you hadn't hugged me, the feather that wounded you would have killed me."

For a second her face was shocked, but then it softened. "You know, you don't need to thank me for that."

"No I do." He said standing up again. "And I just want you to know that I will do anything possible to make it up to you." She smiled and stood up to face him then stepped forward and hugged him.

"Thanks Night. You don't have to" She leaned back, her arms around his neck. ", but if you really think it's necessary." She leaned in and gave him a soft lingering kiss, and then she drew back slightly and let out a shallow sigh, opening her eyes, and looking into his.

She stroked his cheek. "I think that should do it for now." She let him go and picked up her bag from the desk, then walked away as he stared after her in stunned silence.


	8. Chapter 8: unlucky streak

**Chapter 8:**

"She did what?"

Night gave coco a dumfounded look. "Yep, you heard me right."

"Did you even know she liked you?" she said placing her elbows on the cafeteria table.

He thought for a second. "Not really. I mean she's always liked flirting with me, but I thought that was just for show." She was still for a second then pushed forward her plate of stew bringing her head down hard a second later on the point it had be sitting.

"What?" He said poking her beret.

She looked up, an exasperated look on her face. "You really are useless with girls aren't you?"

"Hey you didn't realise either." He replied defensively.

She face palmed. "I'm a girl. I don't need to know when they like me. But you're a popular guy. You should know." He threw her a puzzled look. Her eyes widened. "All this time I thought you just weren't that interested in relationships. You actually didn't realise how many girls here like you did you."

"Wait you're telling me I'm actually desirable?" He said leaning in closer and brining his voice down to a whisper.

She stared at him her eyes wide. "Oh my god, of course you are. You're good looking, you have good dress sense, you're confident, you're strong, and you're intelligent. How could girls not like you?"

His confusion turned to disbelief. "Really?"

"Ok, you know what. I take back that last one. You are a total moron." She looked at her watch. "Wait weren't you supposed to be leaving for your mission at three?"

"Oh crap." He said seeing the clock behind her. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed a roll, dashing towards the doors. Coco watched him run out, chuckling to herself as she did.

Search and destroy.

Those words had always been strange to Night. He knew what they meant and what the mission class involved. But he had always believed that destroy was an unsuitable word.

But now... he could see now why it was used. This wasn't simply killing, it was pure destruction. All that surrounded him was fallen trees, kicked up dirt and dead Grimm.

The smell of blood filled his nostrils and all he felt was the contempt for himself, having caused it. And what made it worse was the fact that he was counting the dead he had slain. Why were he and Light competing? It was sick.

This was their first mission without the supervision of a qualified huntsman, and here they were acting like immature children.

They were in a forest on the outskirts of vale. It had become their job to eliminate all the Grimm in the area, and while it wasn't nice work it was going well. They had been out here for almost a day and the pressure was far less than they had been expecting.

A Beawolf threw itself at Silvia and she used one of her large hammers to smash the creature away. It transformed into a large assault rifle and she fired a burst into the chest of an ursa a short distance away. "I think that's all of the ones in this area."

"Seems to be." Said light, stepping on the chest of a fallen Ursa, and firing a revolver into its head. "That's 68. What you got Night?" Night looked over at him.

"72, which I think makes us even after adding last missions kills." Light smiled. He was enjoying this competition. Night was sure that he had something wrong with him. He always seemed to enjoy causing as much harm as possible to these creatures.

"Alright, How about we move on then?" He began walking. The others exchanged some glances and then followed him. They walked for almost an hour before finding anything else. During this time Amber and Silvia had been chatting. It was amazing how close they had become over the past two months. Night couldn't help but smile as he saw the two of them walking close to each other's sides, talking about the lessons they'd had the day before at the academy.

"Hey guys" the others turned to face him. ", it's getting late so we should probably set up camp." The girls agreed, and unsurprisingly Light argued this decision for neatly ten minutes before giving up and laying down against a nearby tree.

"Night san you get me some fire wood?" Said Amber, sitting on a large log. He gave her a smile and then zipped around the area, collecting an armful of small branches. He placed them a little in front of her. "Thanks." She said, touching a Sigel on her jacket and snapped her arm forward. The branches caught fire and she sat back enjoying the warmth they produced.

Silvia and Night sat down next to the fire. "Do we have any food or were you guys just as unprepared as me?" Night commented, warming his hands.

Silvia lay back and stretched. "Food supplies were supposed to be Lights job." She said, unzipping the front of her top. It was impressive how little she ever cared about showing skin in from of them.

"Well you guys know how unorganized I am." Light said from his tree trunk. "When was I ever going to get anything done?"

"well..." Amber cut in rummaging in her backpack. "I have something that will take out mind off it a little." She took a bottle of clear liquid out of it and threw it to Night. He looked at it.

Where others would have brought water, Amber had brought white rum. He started laughing. She laughed with him taking three similar bottles from her bag, then threw them to the other two and unscrewed the cap on her own. Silvia and Light cheered and started swigging from the bottles.

They spent a few hours laughing and joking. After a little while Night and Silvia picked up two branches from the fire and began fighting with them, sparks flying of them each time they collided.

Four hours later they eventually calmed down. By this point the sky was pitch black, and the woods around them were silent but for the chirping of crickets.

The fire had grown and the area was bathed in a warm orange light, and when a small dark creature crept out of the shadows towards it, it was even more noticeable. At first they didn't react to it and simply watched as this two foot tall, black furred bear cub ambled over and looked at the fire, the light reflecting off its white armoured head.

But then, as it sat down Night spoke. "Um... guys... what do we do?" He looked around at the three other still tipsy teenagers, to see nothing but confused faces. After a moment of staring Light collected himself.

He stood up and walked over to the Ursa cup. It took no notice of this action and continued to sit there looking at the flames. "We were given a mission." He said calmly, taking out one of his revolvers. "Whether it's a cub or not, we have to kill it."

Amber got up and stepped over to him taking his arm. "But it's not harming anyone. It's not even taking notice that we're here. Can't we just leave it alone?"

He looked at her coldly."Amber, give it a couple of years and this thing would tear your head off without a second thought." He said an edge to his voice. "We can't give it that chance."

He raised his weapon and she looked away screwing her eyes closed.

Suddenly there was a flash of red in front of him, across the clearing there was a thud as a shining jagged toothed katana embedded itself in a tree.

Light continued to stand there, looking down at the Ursa cub wearing a look of stunned surprise. The world had gone completely still, each of them not sure what to say, and then the Ursa picked itself up quickly and began backing away from the white clad boy standing above him.

At this moment the stillness was broken and Light fell back, a large red stain spreading across his chest, and across the clearing, a figure stepped forwards from the shadows. The Ursa ran to the side of the clearing and hid behind her, peeking its head out to observe the now standing trio of armed teenagers.

They watched the figure.

She was beautiful. Her slender body was bound in a dress of purple and black. Her arms covered by a set of white and black striped gloves that came to just above her elbows. Her legs were concealed by a matching pair of thigh length tights, and her face, as draped in shadows as it was, was pale skinned and pretty. But it was her eyes that Night most took notice of.

Most people wouldn't have seen them as anything more than an interesting mutation. Night wasn't most people, and he feared the emotion he saw in those eyes. The anger and sadness she held there. The hatred she displayed. But just as strongly, the kindness and the softness, and love.

And it was this love that scared him the most, because it wasn't love for himself, or his team, or any other humanoid being. It was for the Ursa she now stood in defence of. The Ursa Night knew she would readily give her life for.

Night had never been afraid of the people around him, but this woman, this small pretty girl. This girl scared him, because in those eyes of brown and purple, he saw her soul.


End file.
